A duo of suspicious men come to the countryside from London where they meet a pair of winemakers and bring chaos to their lives.
Written and directed by Mark A.C. Brown, this winery thriller is a generally entertaining and some interesting twists and turns. The writing here is witty and gives the characters personality. The way these characters are written and directed shows attention to detail, a desire to entertain, and a story idea that just sticks through the runtime and sticks the landing. In general, the dialog works well and makes these characters lines that aren’t cheesy and feel like a human would say these things in real life. Ok, maybe not all humans, but we’ve all known these types of characters as folks we’ve met along the way and watching them on screen is both endearing at times and incredibly, purposefully frustrating. The film does have a bit of a mystery at the center of it, but it quickly becomes more about the characters themselves than what is really going on. The writing and direction are well intertwined here, creating a film that is cohesive in story and style.
The cast here is on the smaller side and it’s for the best. With 7 cast members listed on IMDB, the cast here is easy to follow. There are our two London possibly-bad-guys, the two winemakers, a potential investor, and two more folks. This is as tight knit a cast as can be and it works great, especially in the limited locations and how they all end up in each other’s spaces, like it or not. The cast as a whole is fantastic with Kate Robbins stealing a few scenes from the moment she shows up on screen. She’s fun and she makes the most out of her lines and time. Joining her in shining performances is David Whitney, proving why he’s a regular of director Brown’s work. The rest of the cast is great too, there is a touch of humor in their performances at times, while other moments are more serious, their work achieves a great balance here.
Cinematographer Kieran Coyle makes this film look so lovely, making the most of the British countryside and the vineyard, shooting to gives the cast the star spotlight, but also doing really good with the establishing shots with a great use of indoor and outdoor lighting. The score by composer Ian Arber joins these images to create an environment for the story to develop that works just right.
Overall, Dead on the Vine is one of those independent films that makes cinephiles happy to watch them. The story is interesting and clever, it’s well shot, and the performances are on point. The darkness of the subject has its light moments and, with a touch of dark humor here and there, makes for a well-rounded entertaining film. Being director’s Mark A.C. Brown’s feature follow up to Guardians (with a slew of short films in-between), his career directory is one that has been interesting and remains so, so onto the next!